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I've been going round in circles with this weight. Because of the colour of the dome and the finish on the base and the cane design and types of canes, I've come down on the side of Vasart. I had wondered if it might be a Paul Ysart weight as it fits well with one of his (at least I think it is) that I do have, but it has differences so I came down on the side of Vasart rather than Strathearn. I've taken all the pictures by natural daylight which isn't good today I'm afraid.Measures 3 1/8" wide approx by 2 1/2" highWould I be right in thinking Vasart and what decade might it be please?Thanks for looking m

canes - it wouldn't let me upload a bigger pic but the yellow middles in the beige canes are whorls open ended as opposed to tubes.and the yellow middles in the blue canes second row from outside are tiny yellow flowers. The outer orange canes seem to have a very dark horizontal striped middle to them, but I can't get it to show.I'll try and add a pic of the base.p.s. I think the one on the left of my comparison pic above a Strathearn.m

I would vote for early Strathearn, but not with complete confidence, as it was basically the same people using many of the same canes that made late Vasart and early Strathearn.

Alan

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Alan"There are two rules for ultimate success in life. Number 1: Never tell everything you know."

The comments in this posting reflect the opinion of the author, Alan Thornton, and not that of the owners, administrators or moderators of this board. Comments are copyright Alan Thornton.http://www.pwts.co.uk

Thanks Alan. My musing and confusion over it was the colour of the glass which is blue (hopefully seen in the dome comparison shot as a fairly good likeness to colour). I had thought that by the time of Strathearn the colour of the glass was a lot paler/whiter , but the canes and the way they are configured and even the base made me think Strathearn. I'm going to have another good go at trying to match the latticino twists - I've not been able to match the canes so far. But then there are so many to go through and I'm trying to compare one at a time.Thanks againm

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The problem about matching canes or lattincino twists as Alan says, is that the workers AND canes moved with the factory - Vasart, Strathearn and even Perthshire paperweights have been found with canes/twists from a previous factory.

Looking at the base of your weight, there are none of the characteristic marks you would expect to see on a PY base. The base of yours is firepolished which means its most likely to be Strathearn but could just be late Vasart. Looking at the very neat setup I am with Alan - early Strathearn.

The dark glass is usually caused by too much decolouriser (manganese or sodium nitrate) being added to the batch. Vasart and Strathearn would not have disgarded a batch of metal just because it had too much decolouriser although I agree that its less common to see dark glass in Strathearn weights.

no, I did mean the dome colour which actually is blue not greyish clear , I just didn't explain myself very well.

Thanks Derek. So probably Strathearn all things considered, but possibly Vasart - The two things that cross over unless I've misunderstood what I've been reading is the colour of the dome but also the base finish.Looking at Kev's site, I think the base looks like the one's id as button finish so I'm confused - there is evidence of grinding on If you scroll down to base finish it looks like the one that appears under Button base left hand side no 2 I'm sure it's just me wanting it to be Vasart rather than Strathearn and I do see the canes indicate Strathearn probably

I spoke to Dave Moir on this topic last year. Dave worked at Ysart brothers, Vasart and Strathearn from 1954 - 1980 when Strathearn was taken over by Stuarts and the Strathearn brand came to an end.

He told me that fire polishing first came in towards the end of Vasart but by no means all the late weights were fire polished. At Strathearn he was positive that ALL weights were firepolished.

The grinding done at Vasart was very cursory - it was basically just to remove the sharp edges where the weight was knocked off the iron. The grinding marks left a frosted surface which to my knowledge was never polished (unless of course anyone knows different!).

It appears from the base picture of your weight as if it is just firepolished with the central area smooth but snapped off. If the central area had been ground then it would have a frosted appearance but you can see the canes clearly through the centre of your weight.

Derek you are right - see my apology in the post above yours And thank you for the added information. I will get it right one day, it's all a learning curve but for now it fits very nicely where it's supposed to be, matching my other.m

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